


Father's Daughter

by arrow_ofa_quiver



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Angst, Character Death, Clint Barton Angst, Depressed Clint Barton, Hurt Clint Barton, Japan, Marvel Universe, Post-Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Ronin Clint Barton, The Author Regrets Everything, The Author Regrets Nothing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-27
Updated: 2019-10-27
Packaged: 2021-01-04 19:04:10
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 781
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21202550
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/arrow_ofa_quiver/pseuds/arrow_ofa_quiver
Summary: After Endgame, Clint can't cope, so he runs away as Ronin. He doesn't realise the impact it has on his family.





	Father's Daughter

It’s started as a simple game, to get away from what he couldn’t take. He would pick off the bad ones that survived, because they didn’t deserve to live. It started with gangs, ones that would target people that hurt those who didn’t have a way out. Then it got bigger, the gangs became mafia, in and out of the US. Eventually, he had made a name for himself. His past name was forgotten. Now he was only known as Ronin. Ronin the merciless.  
— — —  
Ronin knew they were on his trail in Mexico. So he hid. He fled from the Americas to Far East Asia. He holed himself up in a run-down hotel, waiting for the perfect moment to arise again. He found the Japanese mafia, hiding in the cracks of Tokyo. He donned his disguise and crept through the night. He killed every member, each suffering in their final moment. Then he heard a voice, one he never wanted to hear again. A memory of his past. So he threatened.  
“You shouldn’t be here,” he growled.  
“Neither should you,” she replied, “you belong home. With us.” He turned to face his past, the old light in his eyes murdered by the sword in his hand.  
“Clint. You really need to come home. Mums dying,” he saw his daughter, her hair tied back as she held a sword like his own in her hands. Dark makeup was smudged around her eyes as they glowed a bright blue.  
“Clint isn’t me anymore. I don’t belong there,” Clint said darkly.  
“Then why are you talking to me? Ronin the merciless would have killed me straight away,” Lila questioned him, her own glare forming.  
“Because I owe it to you to say goodbye,” Clint pulled up his hood and started to walk off before an invisible force pulled him back.  
“Dad. If you leave now, you’ll only be hunted for the rest of your life. Cooper and I will be coming for you every time. The hunter will become the hunted. If you leave now, you leave mum without saying goodbye to her. If you leave now, there’s no way back.”  
“I’m at peace with that,” Clint charged towards her, and blade met blade. There was nothing left in his eyes. They fought in the street, but no one could attack the other. But finally, one gave out and ran. And Lila didn’t bother to chase him. He wasn’t the person she thought she knew.  
— — —  
Laura died. Clint never returned to the family as they were split up into different orphanages with limited contact. They all got adopted by different families, their dad never came for them. Cooper graduated from college, he wasn’t in the audience. Lila became a young avenger, he wasn’t there at the ceremony. Nathaniel got the top SAT score in 6th grade, Clint didn’t congratulate him. The kids all moved together, he wasn’t helping them. Clint was dead, murdered by a gang with high tech weaponry. He could’ve taken them, but he let them kill him. No one would know that he let the gang kill him because had to see Nat again because he couldn’t live without her. His kids could live without him because he left them. No one would know he had written a note for each of them. Not until they received them in the mail a year later, when they were all together again. Not until they opened the letters and openly sobbed.   
— — —  
Lila snuck through the alleys, her mask pulled over her head, her spear and arrows in her hands. She came across gang after gang and slaughtered each one, leaving no witnesses. She sought revenge for her dad, he didn’t deserve his death, these gangs had done this to him. She went all over the US, killing gangs her dad has missed. She couldn’t care less about legalities. She snuck onto jets and slaughtered gangs around the world. But no one went after her. Cooper had given up on trying - it ended with broken hearts and a scar running the length of his forearm. Nathaniel was too busy with school to be allowed to try. She let herself go, and became a ghost of herself but a spitting image of her father. Every night she would keep a single song in her mind, the only thing that kept her going. She would change the lyrics so it fit her, and it kept her mind clear - the only thing she needed when she was an assassin.  
“Don’t fuck with my freedom, I came up to get me some, I’m nasty I’m evil, must be something in the water, or that I’m my father's daughter.”


End file.
